GCU shocks No. 2 UCLA at NCAA regional

Friday, May 19

Los Angeles, Calif.

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

47-11

UCLA

52-6

Grand Canyon

UCLA

5/19/2023 7:14:00 PM | Softball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Schaefer's 3-run homer, Lopes' 3-pitcher effort lead largest tourney upset since 2005

By: Paul Coro

LOS ANGELES – Back at the Los Angeles Regional with a vengeance, Grand Canyon slayed a softball giant Friday night by staring down UCLA's 13 national championships on the Easton Stadium outfield wall and coming away with one of the NCAA tournament's greatest upsets ever.

GCU stunned No. 2 UCLA and all of college softball by knocking off the Bruins 3-2 on the strength of Lopes senior third baseman Madison Schaefer's three-run, fourth-inning home run.

A year after losing 12-1 to UCLA in its NCAA Division I tournament debut, GCU players were storming the same field against the same opponent to celebrate a statement win that is an exclamation for the program's growing reputation. The Lopes' victory matched the largest upset in NCAA tournament history, knocking off a No. 2 overall seed in a regional opener for the first time since California lost to BYU on the same date in 2005.

Kinsey Koeltzow

"Our girls came in with confidence," said GCU head coach Shanon Hays, whose program is 86-27 over his two years after it went 26-50 over the prior two seasons. "We were playing well in the conference tournament. We feel like we have a good enough ball club that, if we don't show fear and we go out and go at people, let the chips fall where they may. That's what the girls did tonight. This team has grown throughout the year.

"What happened to us last year fueled the fire here."

In just the program's fifth Division I postseason, the Lopes (47-11) used their much-improved depth in the circle to rotate pitchers Meghan Golden, Emily Darwin and Ariel Thompson and limit the Bruins' second-ranked hitting team to two runs on seven hits.

UCLA (52-6) had been 44-2 at home over the past two seasons but Thompson, a senior, closed out the stunner with seventh-inning defensive help. Schaefer made a clutch scoop and throw on a leadoff bunt try and senior second baseman Macee Barnes dived to catch a looping infield liner before catching a game-ending pop-out.

Madison Schaefer

"The energy today was outrageous," Schaefer said. "We loved it. It was just such a fun game to play."

In the double-elimination, four-team Los Angeles Regional, GCU will next play a 2 p.m. Saturday game against Mountain West Tournament champion San Diego State (36-15), which won 7-0 later Friday night against Liberty (38-21). A Lopes victory would put them in Sunday's championship round.

A year ago, the Lopes trailed the Bruins 5-0 after two innings and 9-0 after three innings of the program's NCAA Division I tournament debut, but they looked more confident early with Golden shutting out UCLA in the first two innings.

GCU put runners on base by walk twice in the first three innings but did not score and fell behind 1-0 in the bottom of the third, when Bruins freshman first baseman Megan Grant lined a one-out RBI single to center field after a leadoff single and sacrifice bunt.

Hays made a pitching change to Darwin, who had not allowed a run in her past three outings. The Benson, Arizona, native retired the next two batters, including junior shortstop Katelyn Dunckel's blind, inning-ending scoop on a hot chopper.

Dunckel came up with back-to-back clutch plays, leading off the bottom of the fourth inning with a double when she hustled to second base once UCLA right fielder Savannah Pola did not pull off her attempt at a diving catch.

"We had a lot of conversations about how we wanted to come in and how we wanted our presence," Dunckel said. "And that was to be us, be fearless, play our game. We trusted each other and ourselves and knew the outcome was in God's hands. But we knew we could compete and just have fun. That's always what Coach Hays tells us to do. No stage is too big. No team is too big. We can just play and enjoy it. That's what we did today."

A one-out walk by GCU junior first baseman Kaitlyn Brannstrom set up the legendary program moment from Schaefer, who flew out to left field on her first at bat Friday and noticed that Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year Megan Faraimo was continuing to throw her inside. During batting practice, Hays told Schaefer that the Bruins had the type of high-velocity pitching that she hits well.

It was also the type of "MAYhem" moment that Schaefer craved in transferring to GCU after a standout career at Texas A&M-Commerce. Hays had high expectations for Schaefer's bat this season, but an in-season ankle injury kept the 6-foot native of Frisco, Texas, from feeling at full strength until the postseason.

"I c Madison Schaefer

ame here to play on the bigger stage," Schaefer said after ripping her 10th home run and the team's 75th of the season. "I was at Division II before. Hays told me during the recruiting process that this is what I was going to see. It's what I dreamed of since I was a kid. I never got this kind of opportunity, and I took this opportunity and ran with it."

Schaefer turned on a 1-1 pitch and rocketed it to hit high off the left-field foul pole for a three-run homer and a 3-1 Lopes lead in the fourth inning. UCLA head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez pulled Faraimo, who was 29-2 this season with a 1.33 ERA until Friday.

Darwin kept the lead at 3-1 until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Grant hit a straightaway solo home run with two outs to tighten the GCU edge to 3-2.

That prompted Hays to turn to senior pitcher Ariel Thompson, who originally was slated to be the Game 2 starter on Saturday. After starting last year's regional losses to UCLA and Ole Miss when she was worn down by the season's workload, Thompson got the ultimate redemption on Friday night by throwing 2 1/3 shutout innings against the Bruins for the save.

"What makes this win even more amazing with how we played well was that when we saw our seeding and that we were coming to UCLA, that took some mental toughness because they drilled us last year," Hays said. "If you show weakness, they're going to get you. They're such a great team, so I was very proud of how our girls stood up and played well. That can change at any time. We've got to keep playing with confidence and hopefully keep going."

GCU faces San Diego State for the first time since 2019, when the Lopes won two meetings. The Aztecs closed the season ranked 33rd nationally in NCAA Ratings Percentage Index and backed up having the 27th-best batting average (.308) with a 10-hit Friday, when three pitchers threw a three-hitter against Liberty for San Diego State's third consecutive shutout.

The Lopes pulled off the only first-day upset against a national seed in this year's NCAA regionals. Ten of the 16 national seeds prevailed by shutouts and nine won by eight or more runs.

GCU pulled off a larger upset than the NCAA tournament's last regional-opening victory against a No. 2 national seed in 2005, when Cal was not the regional host and lost to BYU for its 12th loss that season. UCLA, which has reached the past seven Women's College World Series, had not been defeated in a regional opener since 2013.

"I have a great deal of respect for what they're doing with their program," Inouye-Perez said of GCU. "They're newer, as far as being an experienced Division I softball program. They did something to be able to get here. They showed it tonight, so I credit them. They showed up and came to play.

"I've got a lot of respect for what they did. Credit them, and I hope we see them again."